Autotrader ad, 100 views in two days and only one call... what I'm doing wrong?

To the forum motoring experts:

I'm selling my wife's car and I've published it in Autotrader. As I'm from Italy, this is the first car I'm selling in the UK.
The ad had 100 views in the first two days since live, but I've received only one call inquiring for it.
The car is mint and very competitively priced. What could it be the issue? Or this is normal in Autotrader?

Here is the ad:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...ge/1?logcode=p

I'd appreciate your views...
Many thanks in advance,

Carvass

PS: If I'm violating any Forum rule asking for advice on this ad, please let me know and I'll remove it.

Not sure - looks ok to me.

Have you checked Parker's so that the price is spot on?

I suppose it might be useful to know when the next service is due, and how much of the service history was at a main dealer and how much at an independent.

I was bored so I did a quick search. There are a few cheaper nationally of similar age and similar miles. Some are at dealers and i guess that's attractive to some buyers. That said, 100 views is nothing. Stick with it for now.

If its not selling its overpriced.

I maybe wrong (dont slate me for this, you did post a thread asking)

Your car is an 06 which what 7 and years old and your asking 4.5k for a Toyota hatchback?

It's a decent enough advert.

Two things to consider, though: AutoTrader doesn't get the private seller traffic that eBay does these days & a Toyota Corolla,
no matter how excellent, will be a hard sell when there are newer Auris models available at less money.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jubal

I was bored so I did a quick search. There are a few cheaper nationally of similar age and similar miles. Some are at dealers and i guess that's attractive to some buyers. That said, 100 views is nothing. Stick with it for now.

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Thought dealers prices are always higher as you get warranty etc

From experience if you're not in the bottom 2 or 3 options for age and mileage you don't get calls... Autotrader is fine as you'll always do much better than we buy any car, but, getting really good prices can be tricky unless you're really patient... I've always aimed to sell my cars within the first two or three days of advertising them as the price of new ads always stacks up!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jonny

Thought dealers prices are always higher as you get warranty etc

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Dealer prices always higher ??????...... Surely that all depends on the price of the private sales.

The UK is flooded with used cars, leading to very poor used figures - they have much stronger resale values in Europe.

Guide price on this car would appear to be nearer £3,000 - and that is guide, actually getting that is another story! So either hold out hoping for a buyer, or drop the price significantly to shift it fast.

Biggest reason I can see is the reg is blanked out – why would you do that on a site that you're using to sell your car on?
How is anyone going to do any pre-checking before contacting you to discuss any concerns they have – cat C/D write-off, outstanding finance, etc, etc

You images are too small as well.
And you're going up against a dealer selling the same car/colour with 2K more miles for £500 less.

If you seriously want more interest, fix the issues I've raised above, and consider putting it at £3595 ovno (or very nearest offer).
Show the stamped service book and all the documentation, MOTs, keys, and tax disc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jonny

If its not selling its overpriced.

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^^^^This^^^^

Used car sales are more buoyant now than they have been for a wile.

Price, blanked out reg (although I understand the reasons) and possibly the model of car not being as popular as. Focus or Golf etc.

It can take many weeks to sell a car and normally that's due to the seller lowering the price several times until it finds a buyer... Who will come over and offer you even less!

Good luck OP, and be patient :-) It may be worth asking a few dealers what price they'd offer... It sometimes wields better results than you'd expect as long as you're realistic on price.

look at all the comparable cars on Autotrader, and then price yours about a third of the way up from the lowest priced car at the most, or 2-3 from the bottom if you can. Should sell relatively quickly then

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Originally Posted by Richard.

^^^^This^^^^

Used car sales are more buoyant now than they have been for a wile.

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This.

It just looks like its over priced compared to something like this. http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...ge/1?logcode=p

Too expensive. When a dealer has the same model on a 56 plate with 33k up for £3699, a private seller of an 06 plate with 31k is going to have to come in at £3495 and accept near offers. This may seem harsh as yours is obviously a well cared-for example, but for this type of car at this price range it's realistic.

Gents, many thanks for the comments, I will try to adapt the ad accordingly.

However, regarding the price, from all the 5 Door Corollas I've found in Autotrader, mine is the third cheapest as most of them seem to be around £4.5K mark...
Should I take into consideration the lower price point of the 3 Door version as well?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by carvass

Gents, many thanks for the comments, I will try to adapt the ad accordingly.

However, regarding the price, from all the 5 Door Corollas I've found in Autotrader, mine is the third cheapest as most of them seem to be around £4.5K mark...
Should I take into consideration the lower price point of the 3 Door version as well?

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Everyone looks on autotrader and sees what a similar car is advertised at and then advertises theres at roughly the same, bottom line is its overpriced, even if it is the third cheapest you should phone the two cheapest ones, if they are still for sale then they are overpriced too!

Personally Ive looked at sites like auto-trader, pistonheads e-bay etc tc, even the same day Ive changed a car! Lots of people do just "look" at adverts with no interest in purchasing...........Having said that....there are cars available similar to yours at lower prices. Granted yours is low mileage and it looks in good condition............... its a 9 year old car at the end of the day,,,,,,,,,,and plenty of other choices at better prices for buyers. Obviously you want yours sold for the best price you can get......like others have said though..............its better to sell your car as quick as possible, even for a few hundred less thab you "think" its worth.....saves the hassle plus expense of adverts etc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by carvass

Gents, many thanks for the comments, I will try to adapt the ad accordingly.

However, regarding the price, from all the 5 Door Corollas I've found in Autotrader, mine is the third cheapest as most of them seem to be around £4.5K mark...
Should I take into consideration the lower price point of the 3 Door version as well?

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Fair point – missed that the one we've highlighted is the 3 door version – but at this end of the market, the type of likely buyer is not overly concerned with door count.
Either sit patiently and bide your time for the right buyer to come along, or drop yours to £3695.

But the first thing you need to do is take new larger and non-blanked reg plate images, and you may want to drop the price to under £4K, since anyone on a max budget of that won't necessarily think to set the option for up to £5K with a view to bargaining down any slightly over their budget – so you're potentially losing many seeing yours even to begin with.

Can't speak for cars but have recently sold a motorbike and unfortunately it can take time, it took me nearly 7 weeks - bike was popular model, still in manufacturers warrianty, priced competitively (cheapest private one in the country), ultra low miles, loads of extras, hi-res pics lots of!

I had it in MCN and Ebay ( have used bike trader in the past and was a waste of cash) and all my enquiries came from Ebay. Some silly ones but eventually sold it to a guy who was about 120 miles away.

unfortunately it's a buyers market and there has to be a fair differential between private and dealer price for a buyer to take the risk on private.

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Originally Posted by carvass

, from all the 5 Door Corollas I've found in Autotrader, mine is the third cheapest

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Indeed, but there's still a 5dr with the same mileage/spec at a dealer for 3995, and a 2007 5dr for the same price as yours from a dealer with a warranty. To be honest when I use auto trader I filter out the private ones - as others have said its not the best place for private sellers.

Two comments:

1) Many of those 100 "views" will be from robots crawling the AutoTrader web site, not from real human beings looking at your ad.

2) Your target market will probably be considering other makes of car as well, so when setting your price you need to look wider than just other 5-door Toyota Corollas.

I listed my car on autotrader, no calls for a week ,and then one who came and bought it.

Having sold a couple of cars on Autotrader, a drop of 500 quid makes all the difference. It went from no calls to more calls than I could handle..and the car going pretty fast.

Yours may seem cheap in relation to the others around it but as others have alluded to, if it's not significantly cheaper than dealer examples, people aren't going to come to you.

Addendum:
That being said, I'd give it at least a week before doing anything. Sometimes, you've just got to be a little patient.

The car is now SOLD for a tad less than 4K.
I was lucky that the second call I've received was from a gentleman that did viewing/test drive/and left a deposit last Saturday.
Today the car was paid and collected.
I'm happy.

Many thanks for all your advice and tips! The TZ community was really helpful and I'm proud of being part of since last year... Best, Carvass.